Saas Fee, Switzerland

Victor and Beni from Stöckli

Sunshine and Smiles!

Shawn and Sami

Flying in Switzerland

Hiking on bad weather days

Selfie

New Autograph Cards

Card

I have had a productive training camp in Saas Fee, Switzerland for the past two weeks. Shawn and I welcomed the arrival of ski technician Latus who will be joining us this season. Latus was quickly put to work, with lots of new and old skis to prepare for my training and upcoming WC season.

We all met up in Munich, drove to Switzerland and visited the Stöckli Race Headquarters. It is amazing to see the hard work and attention to detail that goes into crafting a pair of skis and is always great to see the team at Stöckli.

We then traveled to Saas Fee and I was greeted by Mattia, the superstar bootfitter from Dalbello. He spent HOURS with me in the first week, perfecting the fit of my shiny new ski boots. Having Mattia in Saas Fee for 4 days, meant that we could make incremental changes to my equipment, try the boots on snow and then make more adjustments as needed. It is safe to say that my feet were definitely not made for ski boots, so a big thank you to Mattia for working so closely with me to ensure that I have great performing (and comfortable) ski boots his winter!

After a couple of days free skiing, working on my technical skiing, we head over to the SX track, built by the Swiss Ski Cross team. The track we have to train on in Saas Fee is world class. There were multiple starts and multiple line options in the track, meaning that our training environment was ever changing, just like on World Cup. The track is big enough that you get butterflies the first time you hit it. It worked in all weather conditions (we had snow, wind, slow snow and fast snow- ever changing!). It was so great to get on a track similar to World Cup size and technicality. I did a few heats and a lot of 'qualification' (solo) runs, trying to take the technical work from free skiing into ski cross terrain. Check out my Instagram feed here for videos of the track in Saas Fee.

I am now on my way back to Australia, where I will continue my 'physical' preparation for the upcoming WC season at Joes Basecamp. I have decided not to come home for Christmas this year, so I will be away from November till March- It's a long stint! So I will be catching up with friends and family between training sessions, as well as spending as much time in the sun as possible.

Sami